what i like about U(sa)

People always ask me what things I miss most about America. From the comfort of this recliner in this cozy cottage with fireplace, it's a pretty easy question to answer. We return to Kenya in 2 months. Here's what I'm enjoying now that I won't have then. The fireplace. Graham crackers and fresh milk. TV shows with actors that speak American English. Yes, I know TV is mostly not good, but it is so relaxing just to listen to people speak your mother tongue. Hearing language spoken the way you grew up listening to it says you're home among people who understand you...even if they really don't...it's just a sort of facade that feels good. The reverse...being surrounded by no one who speaks like you is a constant reminder that you are a stranger in a strange and different land. All of those type reminders are the reason it is good to take a break every few years and visit home soil. It's like I saw on "Raymond" yesterday (which comes on for several hours every afternoon. I'm a junkie for that show, I don't know why) Anyway, he was trying to tell his wife how it was going to be living right across the street from his parents as opposed to miles away. He flicked her on the nose and she says, "ow". He explains that even though that is annoying, if it only happened once in a while, every month or so, it's not so bad, is it? Then he starts flicking her on the nose repeatedly, pow, pow, pow. See? Now that's annoying. Well, it's not annoying living overseas. And it's not bad hearing people speak differently than you do. Or not having American television. Or Walmart. Or graham crackers or any of another million things. On their own, no big deal. But when you start piling them ALL on and watch them multiply exponentially over a period of several years, all of a sudden you realize the need to go somewhere, suck in a big breath, let it out and go "whewwwwwww." Exhale. Then after a few months, you wish you were back in the other place. And so it goes. This will be our 3rd term in Kenya. I think it may be the one that qualifies you as a real missionary. I've no idea. No one has handed me a manual that tells me those things. I wish they would. It would be interesting to read someone else's perspective. That's why I love reading missionary biographies. It is a minority population segment, a culture within a culture, that I think is best understood as all cultures are... by those who have lived it.